Bill to guarantee abortion for rape in Ecuador will be analyzed in the National Assembly

The Bill for the Voluntary Legal Interruption of Pregnancy due to rape is already in the National Assembly. At noon on Monday, June 28, the Ombudsman’s Office delivered the document to the entity.

🔴 #Atención l Defensora del Pueblo (s), Zaida Rovira, entregó a la @AsambleaEcuador el proyecto de Ley de Interrupción Legal Voluntaria del Embarazo por Violación, el cual fue elaborado con aportes de colectivos sociales y expertos nacionales e internacionales en la materia. pic.twitter.com/P5xOL9obpO

— Pichincha Comunicaciones (@pichinchauniver) June 28, 2021

The proposal was delivered by the surrogate defender, Zaida Rovira, in the company of feminist groups and seeks to guarantee the right to interrupt pregnancy for rape in Ecuador, resolved by the Constitutional Court on April 28, 2021.

The project was developed by feminist and women’s movements that was born from a national dialogue and part of a diagnosis of the situation of women, girls, adolescents and people with the possibility of abortion.

Rovira stressed that this project “contemplates that the legal asset to protect are the victims of rape are girls, adolescents, women and people with the ability to gestate, as long as they have been victims of rape.”

The document was delivered to the Legislature as part of the mandate of the Constitutional Court to draft, in two months, a legal body that guarantees access to the voluntary legal interruption of pregnancy when it is the product of rape.

The Ombudsman’s Office explained that this bill is aimed at recognizing the voluntary interruption of pregnancy as a result of rape as a right of women and people with the capacity to carry children, since it is an organic regulatory body.

The proposal has a section that specifies the more specific rights and guarantees that exist for pregnant people, taking into account the different vulnerabilities to which they may be subject, in addition to their age, disability, socioeconomic and mobility situation. even if they are deprived of liberty.

In addition, according to the institution, the proposal indicates that the State has the obligation to deploy all actions that allow girls, adolescents, women and people with the capacity to gestate, to have medical, legal and psychosocial care that contributes to the repair of the damage that occurs when there is rape and unwanted pregnancy.

On April 28, with seven votes in favor, the Constitutional Court declared articles 149 and 150 of the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code (COIP) unconstitutional, which penalized women who decided to have an abortion as a result of rape.